Alien Nine

Take a trio of elementary schoolgirls, add a dash of alien aggression with a small dose of violence for good measure and mix throughly. The end result? Something that wasn't as good as I hoped it would be!

Age Rating: 16+
Company: Central Media Park/US Manga Corps
Genre: Sci-Fi/Slice Of Life Drama
Running Time: Approx 100 mins
Region: 1



Yuri is a normal school girl in 6th grade and she is elected to be a part of the Alien Party. That means she gets to bunk off classes and risk her life to combat evil aliens! It's normal procedure for each school to have one apparently! There she meets up with another two girls; Kumi- the well rounded type and Kasumi - the rich one. Together they will catch and defeat alienz for the sake of their school! Of course, it isn't as easy as it sounds when Yuri finds out they have to wear a creepy alien symbiotic helmet, that literally feeds off their pre-pubecent naked bodies! :o



So here starts the first of four OVA episodes, that seems longer that 20 minutes each! Yuri is a n00b at the Alien Party and keeps the rest of the team back. Aliens invade the schoolgrounds and their teacher Megumi, wants them to catch it. Yuri's mum even approves of the idea - it's normal for symbiotic aliens to feed off loli bodies. In exchange for licking off sweat from their bodies, the girls can wear the aliens as helmets called 'Borgs' (I wonder where they got that from) and protect them from other aliens. Off into the schoolgrounds, Yuri just cries alot as Kasumi and Kumi get rid of the aliens. This happens for the rest of episodes and it makes me wonder where did all the character development went, as well as the actual plot?
However, an interesting theme throughout the seemingly random episodes is Yuri's fear of growing up. This is replicated in her very surreal dreams, surrounded by flowers and white dresses. Her true feelings come through here, but never seems to do anything for her as day after day she just cries instead of catching aliens. This would be ok for a series of 13-26 episodes, but when it only has 4, I would have liked to have seen a bit more action!



Episode 3 in particular, was a PURE FILLER. It was to pass the time between summer vacation and school, but they could have made it more interesting - like aliens attacking,which is the point of this anime! Instead, we see the lolis going to Kasumi's Summer House - frolicking on the beach and going to the summer festival. Ichigo Mashimaro fans take note!
The last episode was the best one with Kasumi going inside an alien - thinking it's her older brother. Yuri and Kumi go to the rescue but are paralysed with their own fear of lonliness but Yuri still cries that she is scared and Kumi still kills off the alien. Meanwhile the teachers seem suspciously half-alien..and then it ends! Talk about a crap ending! If this was a full series, I might have enjoyed the extreme slow pacing but at the end of the DVD, you feel as though nothing really happened from episode 1. The characters are still the same with no progression, but maybe that's the point!
The animation is well done, the backgrounds in particular. It helps that the main characters are so simply done - just like the manga. It just seems weird watching a grown body move around with a chibi face! The music is light and fluffy - if really annoying, although the opening and ending songs were better. I almost forgot to mention the extras! There are the usual previews and anime promo spots, a good art & sketch gallery plus.. a dub-behind-the-scenes video special with the english VAs!



Admittely I always watch dub when watching anime as I feel there is too much snobbery against watching the dub vs sub argument. I detest these 'cuz english dubz suxxx' type people. How can non-Japanese speakers even tell that the Japanese version is better than the English version? But that's another story ;) You will be all pleased to know that this is a good dub!
It's rated 16+ for the excess amount of green blood and alien symbiotic 'rape'. It's not very graphic, but if this doesn't sound like anything you'd watch - then don't!
Due to lack of character development, lack of action, lack of any great characters and lack of plot this only emerges ever so slightly above average. It could have been great with more personality! I'd be scared if I ever rated this above 7 ;)

Overall: 6/10

When I want 10 year old school girls killing aliens, I want it done RIGHT! :x